Gerontologic Issues

Seating options provided make it more likely that people will sit with good or bad posture, and recent research indicates that posture is particularly important in healthcare settings.  Bohns and Wiltermuth determined that participants in their study “who adopted dominant poses displayed higher pain thresholds than those who adopted submissive or neutral poses.”  In this case, dominant posture meant sitting up straight, just as your mother encouraged you to sit.

Good mental health depends on soaking up a few rays – and not just outdoors.  Researchers have determined that our mental state is enhanced when we have access to daylight while indoors, and the Society for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms (SLTBR) met recently to discuss within building exposure to daylight.  The architects, lighting engineers, and scientists who met at the SLTBR session drafted building design guidelines that include:  1) Views from windows should allow people inside a building to see out far enough to monitor the direction of sunlight and the height a

Gulwadi has examined residential environments to identify ways they can be designed to help reduce stress among people caring for sick family members and friends in their homes.  She suggests that these individuals can be restored through positive distractions outside the windows of the home, sunlight, and a view that includes places that provide “a sense of being away either when viewed or when actually experienced.”  Gulwadi indicates that solar tubes can bring sunlight into interior environments in which it would otherwise be unavailable.  Caregivers need a comfortable pla